Friday, May 11, 2012

The woodcutter and the king of the mice

The woodcutter and the king of the mice

(Favourite story from Cambodia)

The king of
the mice lived inside a banyan tree in a forest. One day, a poor man was
cutting down some trees. As he started to cut down the banyan tree, the king of
the mice grew frightened “Please, leave the tree standing” he said to the
woodcutter, “and I’ll give you a piece

of gold every day.”

The woodcutter
agreed. So, every evening the king of the mice took out a piece of gold from
under the roots of the tree and gave it to the woodcutter. The woodcutter took
the pieces of gold home and showed them to his wife.

After a few
days, his wife asked him, “Where does the gold come from?”

“Don’t worry
about that,” he said, “just keep it,”

A few days
later she asked him again, but he did not tell her. “if you don’t tell me,” she
said, “I’ll go and tell the government or even the king that you’re a robber.”

The
woodcutter was frightened of his wife when she was angry. So he said, “Every
evening the king of the mice gives me a piece of gold from under the roots of
the tree.”

“Oh, you are
stupid!” his wife said. “You’ve been tricked by a mouse. He gives you one piece
of gold every evening but the rest of the gold is under the tree all the time!
Why don’t you cut down the tree and take it all away?”

The
woodcutter did as he was told. He cut down the tree. But when he looked under
the roots, the gold was not there. The king of the mice had run away too.

That night,
the king of the mice crept up to the woodcutter’s house and took back all the
gold. So the woodcutter was as poor as ever.